The potential of renewable energy is immense”, says Tulsi Tanti, Founder, Chairman, and Managing Director of Suzlon Group. Energy is important for anything to exist in this universe. Sun’s energy is essential for life to sustain itself on earth. Energy is required for the functioning of a normal washing machine at homes to the movement of humongous ships in the sea. Coal, Petroleum, and other forms of non-renewable resources are major contributors to energy production. So, can we rely on these resources forever to obtain energy?
According to studies, we will run out of fossil fuels in the next half a century if we continue to use them at the same pace. To tackle the energy demand, we have learned to harvest energy from nature. One such form of energy is wind energy. Have you ever seen a windmill? Standing at a height of about 280-330 feet, these giants are used to produce wind energy with the help of huge blades that starts to rotate when the wind speed reaches 9mph and work at full capacity when the wind speed is 30mph. These windmills have their limitations just like the other forms. Limitations like windmills can be used to harness wind energy only at certain locations, wind speed should reach the threshold speed for the turbines to rotate, the possibility of lightning striking the windmill, etc. demands a better method to harvest the wind energy.
What are we going to do?
One among thousands of nuisances in the world for humans is traffic. More than two billion cars run on roads globally and are one of the main reasons for air pollution. What if you are told that these cars that are responsible for one of the biggest nuisances to humans, the traffic can be used to harvest the wind energy. Yes, it is possible. These cars are causes for wind turbulence on roads which can be used to generate wind energy. How can we accumulate wind energy using the traffic? Small wind turbines that have productive designs can be installed on roads to capture a considerable amount of wind. The wind turbines placed on roadsides or the medians can gather wind from both sides of the road and have the potential to generate a huge amount of power. High-speed vehicles on the highways are a good source to collect the wind. The design of these wind turbines should be different from the conventional form of turbines, the Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines (HAWT). HAWT is impotent in collecting wind from all directions. As every vehicle on the roads offers an intermittent source of wind energy, the wind turbine’s design must include storage of power and a system to effectively distribute the power. Hence a practical design that is environmentally friendly, easy to install, has high wind collecting capacity from all sides is required to harvest the unused wind energy on roads. A Vertical Wind Turbine is a preferable design because they are proficient in collecting wind from all directions and we can easily install parts like the generator and a battery to store the energy generated from rotating these turbines. Savonius, Darrieus, Giromill, Gorlav Helical are various kinds of vertical turbine designs. Among the four Helical turbine design is preferred due to its efficiency in collecting wind from all directions. Countries like Scotland and China are investing in technologies of such kind that produce cleaner energy. Many companies are working to develop an efficient wind turbine that can be used to capture the wind on the sides of the road. One such turbine is invented by Sanwal Muneer. Muneer’s turbine is made of recyclable carbon and is 8′ tall and weighs around 9 kg. The lightweight of the turbine makes it easy to transport and install. The motive behind developing this turbine is to supply power to the rural regions and power traffic lights. Wind turbines that are designed by TAK studio are used to power the highway lights.
So, are these wind turbines flawless? Are there no limitations with using these traffic-powered wind turbines?
Wolfgang Riebe said No one is perfect…. that’s why pencils have erasers. These wind turbines have certain drawbacks. A large number of such wind turbines are to be installed to produce a large amount of energy and to not waste any wind turbulence produced by the vehicles. Hence, they are expensive. Safety of vehicles should be ensured as any flaw while installing the turbines could be dangerous for the vehicles, especially the high-speed vehicles on the highways. Despite these limitations, wind turbines that are rotated by the artificial wind along with natural wind are better than conventional windmills.
Revolution of such kind in the energy sector is a step closer to achieving sustainable development. In addition to vehicles moving on roads any other moving vehicle such as the rides in the amusement park that produce wind turbulence can also be used to power these turbines. From causing an inconvenience on roads, tens of thousands of these vehicles are now about to bring a huge change in the energy sector providing clean energy to humans. Perhaps we can use these wind turbines in the automobile industry to shift from petrol- and diesel-powered vehicles to these turbines powered automobiles. Maybe one of our readers can bring the change. Are you the one?
Innovators Quest VIT 